Hazelnut, Mint and Lime Ice Cream

When Scotty bought me my beloved Kitchenaid (aptly named ‘Beatrix’) he vowed he would never buy me the attachments. This was because he wanted to continue to buy me thoughtful presents rather than the entire catalogue of Kitchenaid accessories (FYI this was his decision not mine). It seems my many hours in the kitchen marvelling at how this appliance has changed my culinary life resulted in Scotty rethinking his vow and buying me the ice cream attachment for Christmas – to my absolute delight.

When deciding what ice cream I would make first, I went through all the usual flavours in my head: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry etc. But I realised that my first ever ice cream making experience needed to be something a little more special. So I began to think about other flavour combinations I loved outside of the usual ice cream flavours.

This led me to my beloved alcoholic drink of all time: Frangelico on the rocks with a squeeze of lime and fresh mint leaves. It’s earthy, refreshing and zingy. The infatuation I have with all things nuts should be obvious by now, so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise to you that even my favourite alcoholic beverage would have a nutty flavour.

The three flavours of my favourite beverage felt like the perfect combination for my ice cream, so I quickly got to work researching ice cream bases and beginning the steps towards rich and creamy decadence.

When it was all finished and frozen and Scotty and I were about to taste it, I sensed some uncertainty in him, perhaps he was not as convinced that these three flavours would go together as I was. This all melted away (excuse the pun) after the first taste when I saw it had completely won him over!

Hazelnut, Mint and Lime Ice Cream

To a small pot of boiling water, drop in the mint leaves for 20 seconds (until they turn bright green). Remove leaves immediately and place in ice water for 20 seconds. Transfer to a morter and pestle and pound until a pulp. Set aside.

Combine cream, lime zest, mint pulp, 1/2 cup of the sugar, salt and hazelnut meal in a new saucepan and heat until the mixture begins to steam and foam around the edges (be sure not to allow it to boil).

While cream mixture is warming, in a bowl whisk together egg yolks and remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Whisk the yolks and sugar until thick and light.Once cream mixture has steamed, add one cup of it to the egg yolks in a steady stream while whisking constantly (this must be done quickly so the egg yolks don’t curdle). Then pour the egg mixture back into the cream mixture on the stove and whisk well. Continue to stir the mixture, heating the cream over low heat until you can draw a line through the back of a coated spoon (nappé consistency). This is your ice cream base!

Set aside the mixture in the fridge until completely cool (you can speed up this process by setting up an ice bath to cool the base – fill a large bowl with ice and cold water and place the container with the base inside the bowl stirring frequently.

Once mixture is cool, pour it into your icecream machine (ensuring you follow your the machine’s instructions).Churn the ice cream until it is smooth, creamy and holds thick on a spoon. Transfer the ice cream to a new container and stir in the chopped hazelnuts.

Serve immediately for a soft serve consistency, or freeze for a couple of hours until more frozen.Enjoy!

I love Frangelico but have never had it in a drink with lime and mint – I am clearly missing out because this combination would be stunning! Then you go and put it in ice cream form and now I want to drop everything and make this right away!

Ohhh interesting and delicious combination of flavours and they're nearly all my favourite too hehe hazelnut and lime just never thought of adding mint to it
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Hi there. The current Food on Friday on Carole's Chatter is collecting links to posts about ice cream and sorbets – or anything similar like gelato. I do hope you link this in. This is the link . Please do check out some of the other links – there are a lot of good ones already. Have a great week.